News

Mum defies gag on school holiday row

A MOTHER who was prosecuted for taking her children out of school during term
time to ease the stress of caring for a dying relative has defied a
council’s gagging order by launching a parliamentary petition against her
treatment.

Janice Skelcher was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £400
costs by magistrates in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, after she and her husband
refused to pay a fine for taking their children to visit family in
Australia.

Skelcher, a former emergency call handler, had been due to appear on a
television programme to discuss the case, but Coventry city council obtained
an injunction preventing the identification of the children, in effect
silencing her.

However, Skelcher can now be identified under parliamentary privilege after
John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP, provided details of the case,
including her name, in a petition laid before the House of Commons.